Squeeze Box (song)

"Squeeze Box"
Yugoslavian single sleeve
Single by The Who
from the album The Who by Numbers
B-side	"Success Story"
Released	November 1975 (US) 16 January 1976 (UK)
Recorded	30 May 1975
Studio	Shepperton soundstage, Surrey, England
Genre	Rock
Length	2:42
Label	Polydor (UK) MCA (US)
Songwriter(s)	Pete Townshend
Producer(s)	Glyn Johns
The Who US singles chronology
"Postcard" (1974) "Squeeze Box" (1975) "Slip Kid" (1976)
The Who UK singles chronology
"The Real Me" (1974) "Squeeze Box" (1976) "Who Are You" (1978)
Alternative cover
US single sleeve

"Squeeze Box" is a song by The Who from their album The Who by Numbers. Written by Pete Townshend, the lyrics are couched in sexual double entendres. Unlike many of the band's other hits, the song features country-like elements, seen in Townshend's guitar finger picking.

"Squeeze Box" was a commercial success, peaking at number 10 on the UK Singles Chart and number 16 in the US Billboard Hot 100. The song is also their only international number-one hit, reaching number one in Canada, and reached number two on the Irish singles chart.

Background

"Squeeze Box" was originally intended for a Who television special planned in 1974.^[1] In the planned performance of the song, the members of the band were planned to have been surrounded by 100 topless women playing accordions as they played the song.^[1]

A demo of the song featured a farfisa organ-based arrangement, as well as bluegrass banjos. Authors Steve Grantley and Alan Parker compared this early version to The Beatles' 1968 song, "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da".^[2] This demo appeared on Pete Townshend's demo collection, Scoop.^[2]

"Squeezebox" is a slang term for accordions and related instruments. The song's lyrics consist mostly of sexual innuendo. Although Pete Townshend later said that the song originated as a dirty joke, he said that there was no double entendre, claiming "It's not about a woman's breasts, vaginal walls, or anything else of the ilk."^[2] The Who's bassist, John Entwistle also commented on the lyrics, saying "I dunno. Most songs have double meanings or no meaning at all. 'Squeeze Box' isn't that dirty. It doesn't say 'tits.'"^[2] Lead singer Roger Daltrey, however, acknowledged the double meaning, saying, "There's nothing wrong with a bit of 'in-and-out,' mate!"^[2]

"Squeeze Box" was released as the first single from The Who by Numbers in 1975 in America and 1976 in Britain. It became an international hit, becoming the band's first Top 10 hit in Britain since 1972's "Join Together".^[2] Despite this, Pete Townshend did not think highly of the song, and was astonished at its chart success.

"Intended as a poorly aimed dirty joke. I had bought myself an accordion and learned to play it one afternoon. The polka-esque rhythm I managed to produce from it brought forth this song. Amazingly recorded by The Who to my disbelief. Further incredulity was caused when it became a hit for us in the USA."^[1]

Roger Daltrey, however, spoke positively of the song, praising its simplicity.

It's so refreshingly simple. An incredibly catchy song. It doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is and I love it for that.^[2]

Live performances

The song was first performed live at the New Bingley Hall in Stafford on 3 October 1975, and remained in the set for the rest of the 1975–1976 tour, until drummer Keith Moon's final North American concert at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto on 21 October 1976. The band later played it again in the last leg of the 1982 Tour. Townshend himself played the banjo on the track, as well as the accordion. The song was performed live again in 2014 during The Who Hits 50! tour.

Chart performance

Personnel

• Roger Daltrey – lead vocals, tambourine
• Pete Townshend – acoustic and electric guitars, banjo, accordion, harmony vocals
• John Entwistle – bass guitar, harmony vocals
• Keith Moon – drums

Laura Branigan version

Laura Branigan recorded a version of this song for her second studio album, Branigan 2, in 1983.

Poison version

"Squeeze Box"
Single by Poison
from the album Hollyweird
B-side	"Hollyweird"
Released	March 4, 2002[8]
Length	2:29
Label	Cyanide
Songwriter(s)	Pete Townshend
Producer(s)	Thom Panunzio
Poison singles chronology
"Rockstar" (2001) "Squeeze Box" (2002) "Shooting Star" (2003)

Poison did a version of the song and released it as the second single from the album Hollyweird in March 2002. The song was re-released in 2007 on their album Poison'd, where all the tracks are cover songs. Bobby Dall said on the cover of "Squeeze Box":

. . . Actually, that was Rikki’s idea. When we came into rehearsals . . . to break the ice for the new record . . . before we started fightin’ and arguin’ about songs, we went through a list of covers and remakes. . . . It was the song that stuck and I think it fits perfectly for our band. It has a great melody and a great vocal, but it's also kinda sparse and undefined . . . it was kinda like an open palette for us.^[9]

Pop culture references

• The song is featured in the Freaks and Geeks episode "Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers", where Mr. and Mrs. Weir preview a Who album to see if there are any objectionable lyrics.
• In The Simpsons episode "A Tale of Two Springfields", Homer reminds the Who of some of their songs, but mistakenly terms "Squeeze Box" as being an example of "the Angry Defiant Who".
• An episode of Two and a Half Men which featured a spoof version of CSI, "Stiffs", used "Squeeze Box" as the theme song, parodying the practice of the CSI franchise of using songs by the Who as theme songs.
• An episode of That '70s Show is named after the song.
• In a 2005 episode of Whose Line Is It Anyway? during a game of Scenes from a Hat, Ryan Stiles mentions the song's bridge as a "bad song to sing while making love".
• In a deleted scene from Austin Powers in Goldmember, the Mike Myers character "Goldmember" references "Squeezebox" in the scene where he says "fazha" for the word "father."

References